If you’re the CEO of a new company and looking to hire, one of the more common questions, particularly if you’re a first-time CEO and / or young is “Should I hire experience or youth and energy?” As with most questions like this, it’s a false dichotomy. The answer is never one or the other […]
Tag Archives: hiring
Who Are You Recruiting For?
Every now and then a high school superstar athlete chooses a college that no one’s ever heard of rather than one of the “premier” programs in their sport. There are likely a few reasons why this happens, but most likely the coach of the smaller program made an impression that was unique and different from […]
Hiring Junior Developers
There’s a time to hire junior developers, and it’s not when you’re trying to get your product off the ground. The early development team has to be 100% autonomous and not need time-consuming technical oversight. You’ll be struggling with lots of issues related to the business itself, and the last thing you need is to […]
Notes from Rusty Rueff – An HR Master
I had the privilege a while back of sitting through a presentation from Rusty Rueff, who is one of the best-known experts on human resources in Silicon Valley. He talked for about 20 minutes, and I took about 4 pages of notes. It’s all relevant for the company you’re building right now. Below are my […]
Technical Co-Founder vs. CTO – What’s the Difference?
There’s a big difference between hiring a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and finding a technical co-founder for your company. Since almost every technology business has this problem, it’s worth exploring what each term means and how the search for each of them differs. What’s a Technical Co-Founder? The key point about a technical co-founder is […]
Auditions – Testing for Team Fit
We’ve been talking about using auditions, or test projects, in hiring technical talent. In the first article, we talked about why auditions are important, and reviewed at a high level how to run a successful audition. In our next article, we covered how to test for technical competency during the audition. In this article, we’re […]
Auditions – Testing for Technical Competency
In our last article, we covered the three goals of an audition and the basic guidelines for using one to hire technical talent. If you happened to miss it, do go back and read it before you dig in here. In this article, we’re going to cover how you, as a non-technical founder or product […]
How to Use Auditions in Hiring Technical Talent
Without a doubt the topic I get asked most about is hiring and managing technical talent. Whether it’s your technical co-founder, a key early hire, or a contractor, a key part of your process should be a test project. In the next few articles, we’re going to cover how to properly run a test project, […]
How to Structure Contractor Deals
A few articles ago, we talked about the economics of hiring a US-based contract software development shop and how to find contractors to help you build your product. As we talked about, hiring a contractor can sometimes be the right way to either augment your team or perhaps, on rare occasions, be your entire team. If […]